Walt Disney Pictures Lowest-Grossing Movie of 2025 Confirmed

After getting off to a rocky start at the box office this year with Captain America: Brave New World and Snow White, Disney was able to bounce back in a big way thanks to the tremendous success of the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake, which became the studio’s first billion-dollar hit of the year. That being said, while Zootopia 2 is expected to do similar numbers by the time its theatrical run comes to an end, it hasn’t been all peaches and cream for the House of Mouse in 2025. Several of its releases failed to even crack the $200 million mark, and now, with the year coming to a close, the studio’s lowest-grossing movie has finally been confirmed.

Surprisingly, the lowest-grossing movie of the year for Disney wasn’t their critically panned live-action remake of Snow White, nor was it the Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan sequel, Freakier Friday. That honor goes to a more recent release that was led by Jared Leto – the sci-fi action sequel, TRON: Ares. Hitting theaters on October 10, 2025, the third installment in the franchise that began all the way back in 1982 managed to gross just $142 million at the worldwide box office against a production budget of over $200 million. When you factor in the marketing costs, TRON: Ares actually managed to lose Disney around $132 million, making it a certified dud in every measurable way.

Both Freakier Friday and the controversial animated movie, Elio, managed to outperform TRON: Ares at the box office this year, but honestly, that isn’t saying a lot. In the grand scheme of things, they just barely squeaked by the performance of Leto’s sequel, with each taking in a little over $150 million. To get a full breakdown of Disney’s performance this year, check out the list of their theatrical releases below, and which ones earned the most money:

What Went Wrong With ‘TRON: Ares’?

While it’s easy to point fingers and say that TRON: Ares‘ box office woes were the fault of its star due to how problematic he’s been over the years, there were a number of factors that went into the film’s downfall. First and foremost was the fact that not a lot of people were that interested in a third TRON movie. The franchise has always catered to more of a niche audience, and while the second film, Legacy, managed to do okay at the box office back in 2010 and at least break even, it wasn’t well-received. It holds just a 51% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and an audience score of 64%. Certainly nothing to write home about.

Another thing that led to Ares‘ downfall was marketing. Sure, the trailers looked pretty and featured stunning visual effects, but that’s not enough to carry a movie to success. People want great stories, and sadly, none of the promo material really highlighted what the film was about. As such, nothing really connected with the audience enough to drive them into the theaters.

Needless to say, it’ll probably be a long time before Disney ever revisits the TRON franchise, which is sad because it has such great potential to tell compelling, relevant stories that could resonate with the masses if done right. Unfortunately, the studio has always treated it more as a vehicle for flashy effects and not much else, which in this day and age just clearly won’t fly.

Release Date

October 8, 2025

Runtime

119 minutes

Director

Joachim Rønning

Producers

Jared Leto, Jeffrey Silver, Sean Bailey, Steven Lisberger, Emma Ludbrook, Justin Springer